Edwidge Danticat: U.S. deportations to Haiti during coronavirus pandemic are ‘unconscionable’ | Opinion

They are as young as one, two, and three years old, the children who are scheduled to be deported, along with their families, to Haiti on Monday. Their names are on a May 11 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flight manifest — ICE AIR — that also includes death squad leader Emmanuel “Toto” Constant, who once admitted on “60 Minutes” that he was working for the CIA while running a brutal paramilitary organization, which was responsible for the torture and murders of thousands of Haitians. After it was revealed that Constant’s name was on the manifest, he was removed from the flight, according to a report by the Miami Herald.

Constant’s attempted deportation, along with the increased frequency of these flights, during a global pandemic, of which the United States is the epicenter, shows how, under the guise of immigration enforcement, the United States can further destabilize Haiti, both by inserting new players into its current political powder keg and by increasing the chances that COVID-19 could ravage a country that is scarcely prepared for it.